just.a.guy

The new American dream: renting. Sociology professor Thomas Sugrue says it's time to accept that home ownership is not a realistic goal for many people, and to curtail the enormous government programs fueling this ambition.

The home mortgage interest deduction is a ridiculous piece of tax law that needs to be removed, given that it only distorts the market and artificially supports asset values (by changing the cash flows, which is how properties are fundamentally valued). The problem is that it will be virtually impossible to get rid of since it's popular among homeowners (who don't realize it doesn't provide them net benefit at all), and even if we COULD get rid of it it would be a one-time transfer of wealth from sellers of properties bought when the deduction was in place to buyers after its removal.